Dr. Maria Babak: Empowering Women in Science | Walk and Talk with Tatevik Margaryan

In this Walk and Talk episode of OncoDaily, Dr. Maria Babak, Assistant Professor and Head of the Drug Discovery Lab at City University of Hong Kong, joins host Tatev Margaryan for a heartwarming conversation. They discuss the importance of self-belief in overcoming obstacles, especially for women in science.

Dr. Babak shares her journey from aspiring academic to a passionate advocate for change, highlighting how her family’s background in medicine shaped her desire to help others. Through lighthearted dialogue, they explore inspirations, motivations, and personal anecdotes, including Dr. Babak’s unique culinary preferences and her favorite comfort food.

Tatev Margaryan is the coordinator of the Blood Bank of Armenia at the Yeolyan Hematology and Oncology Center. She was a project manager and ‘walk and talk’ host in OncoDaily.

Tatev has completed a bachelor’s degree in psychology from the Yerevan State University and a master’s degree in global public health from the Queen Mary University of London. She has previously worked as a psycho-oncologist at the National Center of Oncology of Armenia. She has also completed a program in the Management of Depression Disorders from Harvard Medical School.

Tatev is also an active young leader representing Armenia in many international communities, such as the Young European Ambassadors and the Global Shapers.

Dr. Maria (Masha) Babak is the Head of The Babak Lab and an Assistant Professor at the City University of Hong Kong. In November 2020, she joined the City University of Hong Kong as an assistant professor. Dr. Babak received the Graeme Hanson-AsBIC Early Career Award in 2022.

Her research interests are at the intersection of chemistry, biology, and medicine, with a focus on the discovery and preclinical development of anticancer drugs for resistant and aggressive cancers with limited treatment options, such as malignant pleural mesothelioma and brain metastases.

Tatev Margaryan: Good day everyone and welcome back to Walk and Talk on Encode Daily. My name is Tatev Markarian and I’m your host as always. And our guest for today is Dr. Maria Babak. Dr. Babak, can you please introduce yourself? Sure. Hi everyone.

Maria Babak: My name is Maria Babak. I’m Assistant Professor and Head of the Drug Discovery Lab at City University of Hong Kong.Thanks for having me.

Tatev Margaryan: Thank you for accepting our invitation. Dr. Babak, we’re just going to take a little walk and I will be asking you a couple of silly questions, fun, a bit personal maybe. So nothing professional, nothing career-wise, just some fun and easygoing time. You’re okay with that? Then let’s get started.

The first question for today is what inspires you in life or in work in general?

Maria Babak: In general, a lot of things and a lot of people inspire me and usually I’m very excited to look at the career path and life path of some very interesting people. Sometimes I even watch this kind of interviews or shows on YouTube where they talk about the inspiring people. So they are really interesting for me.
And besides that, I also am inspired by art. So I’m a very, very artsy person.So I like to go to the museums and concerts and I get inspired from this.

Tatev Margaryan: That’s so nice to know. Maybe this interview will be someone’s inspiration.
I hope so. You said people. Can you name someone, someone that you’ve been most inspired by maybe?

Maria Babak: Oh, definitely. Easy. I’m most inspired by my postdoc supervisor who is a professor at the National University of Singapore, Prof. Vihan Ang. So he’s an amazing person because he had a major career switch. So he was in the Navy actually for many years. He made a great career there and then he decided to be a chemist and then he just quit his job in the Navy and then just started his PhD suddenly.

And of course, it was very difficult for him to find a supervisor. But then, of course, because he was so dedicated, he became super successful. And what this story is telling me is that you can achieve anything if you want, right?
You can just change career completely at any age, in any situation, and you will be successful if you want to.

Tatev Margaryan: That’s really an inspirational story, actually. Wow. Okay.
We started off with inspiration. Let’s maybe continue with something similar. What’s your motivation?
What’s your drive? What keeps you going?

Maria Babak: My drive? I want to be helpful to people. And I know it’s a very cliche answer, but for me, it’s really related to my family because my parents are surgeons.

And from my very early years, I’ve been surrounded by my parents’ patients, especially my mother’s cancer patients. And every time they would see my mother, they would be so happy and grateful. I remember we would go somewhere along the street and then suddenly people literally jumping on my mother, saying, thank you so much.

Thank you for helping us. And of course, I cannot not do anything important. So that’s why I really want to help people.
I’m not a doctor. I’m not a clinician, but I’m doing drug discovery. So hopefully, I will be able to help people somehow.

Tatev Margaryan: You don’t actually have to be a doctor to help people, but you’re doing just as much and even more in your own path. So thank you so much for choosing that as your drive to help people.

Maria Babak: I hope that I will do something for people.

Tatev Margaryan: I think you already do. Good. Okay.

Has your work changed your perspective on life?

Maria Babak: Maybe, because I work in academia. I think I was very naive before. I’m not naive anymore.
Before starting working. Before starting working in academia, yeah. My whole life, I wanted to be a professor.
I thought that once I become a professor, then I will change life. I will cure cancer. I think every person thinks the same way.

Yeah, at some point. But what I realized is that it is very difficult, especially for female scientists, for young scientists. There are a lot of people who support me, especially at City University of Hong Kong.

But still, sometimes you meet people who don’t consider you worthy because of your gender or because of your age or both. And also academia is quite a toxic place. People are obsessed with huge industries, with impact factors, and sometimes it’s more important than the actual research that you do.

So probably, not probably, for sure, I became less naive.

Tatev Margaryan: Okay. So does it change the way you are in everyday life or is this naivety gone only in the workplace?

Maria Babak: No, it changed everyday life as well because I realized that sometimes you have to be strict, sometimes you have to be really insistent. And I think I became a harsher person after I started to work in academia. You really sometimes need to stand your ground.
Yeah, absolutely.

Tatev Margaryan: I agree with that, especially as women. I was much softer before. In science, in research, in meds, in STEM.
We stand together in this.

Maria Babak: Not easy for women in STEM sometimes, but yeah, we should stand together.

Tatev Margaryan: Yeah, absolutely. Okay. Now, let’s switch from the philosophical and deep questions to something silly.
What’s your favorite food?

Maria Babak: My favorite food? I think you will be surprised by the answer, chicken feet. Really?
Yes. Are you surprised? Somehow, now I live in Asia, right?

Yeah. And it’s quite a common food in Hong Kong or in China. But I ate chicken feet when I was in Russia and in Europe before.
Because that’s, yeah, in Russia they eat it too. Not everywhere, but my mother likes them. So when I came to Hong Kong and I go to, when I go usually to this local restaurants with local people and then they ask me, do you want to try?

Sure, I love it. Yeah, so they are surprised that you are not surprised by it, right? Exactly.
I really like chicken feet, but also, of course, I miss Russian food. So whenever I have a chance to eat it, I would, yeah.

Tatev Margaryan: What would you pick like out of all the Russian foods? Something that’s like a comfort food, maybe.

Maria Babak: We have one salad that is called fish under the fur coat. And that would probably be my comfort food.

Tatev Margaryan: I like it. I love it, actually.

Maria Babak: Yeah, I do. Yeah. It’s a New Year food.
Yeah, it is.

Tatev Margaryan: It is. It is very symbolic. Yes.
Salad for New Year. Yes. Okay.
And maybe the last question for today is what a piece of advice you have ever received?

Maria Babak: I think believe in yourself. Do not listen to toxic people when they tell you that you will not succeed because you’re too old, you’re a woman or any other reason. You can succeed if you really want to.
And I really believe it.

Tatev Margaryan: I really believe this. I join in your in believing that. And hopefully lots of other people will start believing in themselves after this interview we had with Dr. Maria Babak. Thank you, everyone, for watching. Thank you. And stay tuned for further Walk and Talks with Dr. Mark Haram. See you. Bye.